A Campaign to Make Eugene and Springfield
Cities of Kindness
Purpose, Goals and Requests
The purpose of this campaign is for all citizens of Eugene-Springfield to benefit from greater kindness, at a personal and community level. We are trying to create a culture of kindness. Our goals are to give greater visibility to the many acts of kindness that are already taking place in Eugene-Springfield, encourage more acts of kindness (especially people volunteering for non-profits for the first time), engage in more conversations about kindness, listen to what kindness means to all segments of our communities, record 100,000 acts of kindness in 2019, and celebrate our kindness accomplishments in Nov 2019. We are working with schools, faith-based organizations, businesses, neighborhood associations, non-profits, and governmental agencies to share and increase their kindness stories and accomplishments. By spring we will have distributed over 300 signs and are ordering another 100.
The Eugene-Springfield Cities of Kindness Month: November, 2019
Mayor Tom Tait of Anaheim, a leader of the cities of kindness movement, will give the keynote speech at our 2019 celebration on Nov 3, meet with small groups of leaders and may speak to a school assembly. Mayor Tate spent three days with the Dalai Lama in India and his leadership is acknowledged in the TV show How Lady Gaga, the Dalai Lama, and a Billionaire Are Inspiring Cities to Cultivate a Culture of Kindness. Our advisor from Anaheim is Nathan Zug, pastor of Community Concerns at Magnolia Baptist Church and an Anaheim Police Department chaplain.
Benefits of Increasing Kindness
Anaheim, California is a City of Kindness that has reported over one million acts of kindness in eight years. Anaheim has benefited from this focus with reductions in homelessness, crime, school bullying/violence, and gang membership, increased kindness initiatives by businesses, improved community policing including officers referring drug users to treatment rather than arresting them, and more.
Getting Started
In May 2018, 150 people gathered in Eugene to kick off the Spreading Kindness Campaign by discussing the transformational power of kindness and various ways of generating more kindness. One of the highlights of that event was a reading of the Peace Pledge that was written by students in Springfield, Oregon following a tragic school shooting. View a local news clip about the workshop here, or watch the full workshop here.
Our Spreading Kindness Campaign is currently focusing on helping Eugene and Springfield become “Cities of Kindness.” We are meeting with schools, city officials, business groups, faith based organizations, the county, non-profits, and under represented groups to discuss how we can increase kindness.
We also try to help people expand their own capacity for being kind with resources listed under “Personal Kindness.”
We invite you to help us spread kindness by exploring some of the options on this website under “Spread Kindness.” You could volunteer for one of the groups helping the homeless, put up a kindness yard sign, host a dinner party with a focused discussion on kindness, or share an inspiring act of kindness.
Our goal is to increase kindness in our community, one small act at a time.
Who We Are
Steering committee: Bruce Abel, Bhavia Wagner, Doug Carnine, Maggie Donahue, LeeAnn Sheehan, Stan Paine, Steve Christiansen, Carmen Urbina, Toni Daniels, Deb Jones, Linda Carnine, and Tom Maloney. Advisors: Dave Funk and Hugh Prichard.
Spreading Kindness has support for making Eugene and Springfield Cities of Kindness from 28 local organizations including: neighborhood associations, faith organizations, businesses and non-profits. Some of the Supporters are: the YMCA, The University of Oregon College of Education, Saint Vincent de Paul, Willamette Family, Catholic Community Services of Lane County, City of Family Development, Looking Glass.
Individual supporters, of which there are currently 19, include: Kitty Piercy, Guadalupe Quinn, Judy Newman, Rev. Dan Bryant, David Fidanque, Michael Carrigan, Nancy Golden, Rev. Bingham Powell, Hafiz Lealand, Marshall Peter, Marion Malcolm, Debbie Egan, Bill Morrisette.
To ask questions and receive updates about the campaign, email spreadingkindness7@gmail.com. The campaign does not ask for donations or endorse political candidates.
